Social recommendations like +1s on Google+, Facebook comments, etc. are called social signals.
Social signals impact search engine rankings and Google has been elevating the importance given to social signals as part of its ranking algorithm for several years now.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, instead of aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Google’s own head of the web spam team Matt Cutts has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to social media, as social trends and relationships tend to change too quickly to fully map out. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign too much importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as sites that provide value develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the websites that Google wants to ascribe higher search rankings to.
Social Signal Sources
Social sites that search engines like Google look to when measuring social signals include:
With almost 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most dominant social network in the world. It has been estimated that a single post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if it seems like Facebook is not driving a ton of sales on your website, you should not be quick to dismiss the power of leveraging Facebook, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, Facebook seems to have the most influence on website rankings of all social media sites, like GooglePlus and Twitter.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second biggest social media site in the world, with over half a billion tweets sent out each day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great importance on tweeting posts that provide value to readers over the number of tweets sent …
(Over half a billion tweets are sent every single day. Source: InternetLiveStats.com)
Google Plus
Google’s own social site naturally carries a significant degree of authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting on Google+ every day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other social media networks that provide important social signals, like Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
(Social media sites provide important signals to search engines that could affect your rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Social signals tracked by search engines like Bing and Google include the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook likes, comments, and shares a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. tweets and retweets, how influential the person tweeting is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (high profile users), how many people are following you, amount of adds and shares, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. growth rate of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Other signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious social media-related factors that can indirectly influence search rankings. These include positive and negative factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of poor quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a website owner, it’s important to not only grow your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track and analyze social media marketing campaigns in order to improve your business results.
(Use social media to improve your results online)
Social media monitoring allows you to find insights into what people are saying about your services, brand, or company on social media, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by dissatisfied customers, identify potential market opportunities, spy on your competitors, and measure the impact of your marketing campaigns. Additionally, social media monitoring can also provide you with valuable data about emerging trends and what clients and consumers are thinking about specific brands, businesses, topics, or products.
As a tool for business intelligence, being able to track volume and sentiments of social conversations and social activity on social media is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by various groups that include market research, marketing professionals, PR companies, social media marketing agencies, social engagement and community staff, and sales teams. Typically, smaller businesses don’t have the budget to pay a social media monitoring service to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately many technology companies have developed many tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, enabling companies to identify and even predict what is being said online about their brands so they can react to conversations and engage with consumers in various social media platforms.
We have created a detailed article where we explore several social media monitoring tools that will help you manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing campaigns. Go here to learn more:
(Are you tracking social signals effectively?)
In this article, you will learn about a simple plugin for WordPress sites for monitoring social signals and improving your social media exposure.
Presenting …
Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics Plugin
Description Of Plugin
Social Metrics Pro is an easy-to-use social media analytics premium WordPress plugin that is designed to make increasing your social media influence online uncomplicated. It is built on a simple premise – SocialMetricsPro tracks and measures how each signal is performing and displays either a red or green indicator. The site owner’s task is to change red squares into greens.
(A standard operating procedure that any website owner can operate … turn all the reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. Posts that receive the most shares are colored green. Posts with low social media activity display amber and red.
The developers of SocialMetricsPro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of 3 months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping their metrics on “green”. According to the plugin developers, they were able to notice a 360% improvement in traffic for their top 10 performing sites, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and they also experienced a 310% increase in revenues.
(According to Social Metrics Pro developers, focusing on improving your social media marketing campaigns can result in better search engine rankings, increased traffic and an increase in revenue!)
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Benefits
Below we have listed just a few of the benefits of using Social Metrics Pro to track Likes, Tweets, +1s, Pins and more directly from your WordPress Dashboard on your website:
Quick And Simple To Install And Configure. Be Up And Running In Minutes.
SocialMetricsPro installs just like every WP plugin. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your admin user section and activate.
Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to convert more reds into greens. The plugin tracks and measures social signals so you know which campaigns need you to invest more effort and where to optimize.
Select Only Signals You Care About
SocialMetricsPro lets you monitor social media activity across leading social media networks like Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Digg, and LinkedIn directly from your WP dashboard.
SocialMetricsPro lets you easily answer questions like:
- Which social media networks work best for my site?
- Which posts are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which of my posts are the most popular?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with a single click.
(SocialMetricsPro actively tracks social signals from the social media sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro offers website owners with many unique features. Here are just some:
- Fast and easy to install and implement. Ready to go to work in minutes.
- SocialMetricsPro Is Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend its functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access updated information from your WP admin bar, display popular content on your blog sidebar or anywhere in your site using point-and-click widgets.
- 1-click updating. Update SocialMetricsPro in a single click via the WordPress Updates page, or update the manually manually. You can also choose to receive an email notification when a new version is released.
- Plugin works the smallest hosting configuration. Reporting is fast, using little server resources. Report generation also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve information and the server memory used to gather the data.
Additional features include:
- Sorting, Searching & Filtering Features: SocialMetricsPro allows you to sort, search and filter your data as you like. You can perform keyword searches to study topic-related posts, and even filter the results by post type, category, post authors, or by publishing date.
- Export Data: You can export and plot filtered data and custom queries in Excel for further analysis. Data can be exported in tab-delimited and comma-separated file formats, and imported to Excel or the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is really simple to use … just turn all reds into greens!)
Feedback From Plugin Customers
Here are some of the testimonials and feedback customers have published about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
”Our entire marketing strategy relies on social media. Each post on the site has viral potential, but we needed one place to see which social networks are performing the best for us…We went ahead and got the PRO Version of Social Metrics.” Syed Balkhi, Founder of List25 and WPBeginner.com
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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Useful Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a step-by-step, practical guide containing useful advice on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. turn reds into greens).
Social Metrics Pro Plugin Support
The software is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, sixty-day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Price
Social Metrics Pro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site License – This allows you to run Social Metrics Pro on a single web site. Includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites Edition – This lets you set up Social Metrics Pro on all web sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime updates and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Note: Price details for the SocialMetricsPro product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. The above reflects the price at the time this review was published. This may or may not be the actual price set by the plugin developer when you visit the website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Info
Social Metrics Pro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore how important social media is to their online success. SocialMetricsPro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives you immediate feedback on the success of your social media marketing strategy and shows you where and how to improve your results.
Social Metrics Pro is ideal for beginners and advanced WordPress users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
Get Social Metrics Pro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to avoid wasting resources on over-optimized networks.
For more details, visit the plugin website here: Social Metrics Pro – Social Media Analytics Plugin
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